WOOHOO! The screen worked!! (Thanks to Greg for encouraging me to try it again, rather than give up on the screen completely.) Sweet. It’s got to dry overnight, and then get heat-set tomorrow, and then tomorrow night I’m going to run out and get some packing materials (bubble wrap, probably), and mail it all off Wednesday. I think it’ll have to go in two packages – one thing is delicate, and I don’t want it to break and get all up in the other stuff, so I think I’ll send it by itself.
And, I got a 9/16 inch hole punch? It is pretty fucking awesome.
Well, and now I’ve got a chance to redo some of the smaller crafts that didn’t come out as well as I’d hoped. That’s another problem with swaps, is I have a hard time saying, “Alright, it’s done” and sending it out to someone, if I think I could do it better. Only, it’s a swap, so at some point (hopefully *before* the deadline) even if it’s not perfect you have to accept it as good enough. Not that the stuff I’ve made this go-round has come out badly – quite the opposite. But I tend to be a harsher critic of myself when I’m making stuff for someone else.
And I’ve had quite a bit of fun trying new crafts. Which I’ll tell you all about, after my partner’s gotten everything.
Well, I’ve got some lovely stuff to send off for the Lynch swap, but it looks like I won’t get to send it until Tuesday or Wednesday. Boo. It’s that damn screen. Actually, the image that was giving me trouble in Photoshop, turned out very well on the screen. The image that did well in Photoshop, was the one that gave me so much trouble when I tried to print. I’m letting the screen dry tonight, and I’ll give it another go tomorrow, although I don’t have much hope of it working any better. If it doesn’t work tomorrow, I’ll try stencilling. And if that doesn’t work (since I’ve never stencilled before), I’ll suck it up and do an iron-on. On top of the screen leaking somehow (no idea how, but, there it is), the frame died – it’s been used so much that one of the tracks for the…plastic string thingy, anyway one of the tracks has worn wider than it should be, and it won’t hold the plastic string in, so, since we’re going to have to get (or make) a new frame, Greg just stapled the screen on, which seemed to work pretty well. I thought maybe the leak came from a run in the screen, caused by the staples (like a run in a stocking), but once we’d rinsed the ink off, I couldn’t find any trace of a run.
Anyway, I’ve certainly learned my lesson: do not leave screenprinting for last! Too much can go wrong – and I am so much better at dealing with “last minute gone wrongs” and fixing shit when it’s, like, crochet or cross-stitch, or something I do more often and am better at. Next time, if I’m going to mess with screenprinting, it’ll be the first thing I do.
Oh, and for the record? I am not so much a fan of E6000 glue. I know it takes 24 hours to, like, cure and set , or whatever. But every time I’ve tried to use it, it hasn’t wanted to adhere to the surface I was trying to glue.
And I have got to get a heart-shaped magnifying glass on a chain like Miss Marple’s.
Well, I feel like an ass. First, for some reason I thought the send-out date for the Lynch swap was this Monday, when it was really this Friday. (I guess that’s not a huge fuckup, since my swap partner is uber nice and said I could send late since she’ll be out of town anyway. And if I’m being realistic, even if I mailed it out on Friday it probably wouldn’t get to her before she went on vacation. But who wants to be realistic?) Second, and more importantly, that goddamn screen! I should backtrack, for (a little more) clarity.
The image that was giving me trouble? Yeah, I thought I’d spiffed it up. Then I printed it out today, and there’s some weird watery grey bits on one area that should just be white, so I’ve got to go back and clean that up. That’s not really a big deal, just a minor irritant. So I used the awesome image, that came out perfectly, oiled up my paper, it was looking great, go to burn the image in. And once it’s burnt in, I spent about, I don’t know, 30 or 40 minutes trying to rinse it out, and parts of it that should have rinsed didn’t, and one of the eyes got decimated and lost all detail. Not pretty. It seems to be down to the emulsion, and not that it was under the light too long. So the emulsion looked fine, but the sensitizer looked a little sketchy to me, and when I mixed them it was a little runnier than I remembered the last batch being. It’s cool, though, I’m going to chill out, and then I’ll try coating another screen, and seeing if maybe I was just a smidge too heavy-handed last time. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just get all new emulsion and sensitizer, and mix up another batch from scratch, and have at it. I WILL have this shit worked out, and awesome tshirts made, dammit. I’m just frustrated right now, because when I pulled the screen out from the light to rinse it, I could see the image, and it looked perfect. But then it just didn’t want to rinse properly. Boo. And now I’m in a crap mood.
Actually, now that I think about it…If I send it late anyway, I can do the expansion I was considering for one craft. Like, it’s kinda big already, right. Not huge, but a goodly size. And it’s not totally finished yet, but it’s pretty awesome, I think. (I wouldn’t mind keeping it, so I think I’ll have to make a similar thing for myself eventually.) Anyway, I had this idea for how to make it even more…more. I don’t know. More Lynchian? More fitting? More literal? I don’t know. Anyway, but this idea would mean some more intensive figuring things out, and rigging things in place, and I decided not to do it because I didn’t have time. But maybe I do, now, if I’m going to be sending late anyway. I’ll have to think about it, though, because on the one hand I think it’s pretty awesome, and on the other hand maybe I’m just wrong and it would be too much. I feel ridiculous not being more clear about this, but I don’t want to spoil my swapmate if she’s found her way here. How about this – I’ll explain what I mean on another page, and what my two or three options are, and if anyone wants to go read it and give their opinion, that’s cool. If you just want to read it and know what the hell I’m going on about, that’s cool, too. And if Marissa’s reading this, well, you can spoil yourself or not as you see fit.
Okay, I pretty much hate kids. Not all kids, mind you, and not most of the kids I actually know (like kids of friends, or kids of blogs I read) because they’re usually pretty well-behaved. But I mean, in general, I do not like kids, because most (strangers’) kids I come in contact with are insufferably ill-behaved little shits. (Like the girls at the grocery store in the other line, who decided to pick up our GimmeLean sausage and start squeezing it. Like, hi, Dad, please get your precious gems to stop fucking around with and possibly popping open *our* food. UGH.) Okay. All that being said, I will admit that there are some cute kids out there, but usually I’m plenty happy to just be Aunt Kathy or Friend Kathy or whatever, and not “Mom.” (Not ever “Mom.” Hells no. Two cats are more than enough of a handful.)
But this kid?
Yeah. I kinda very badly want one of my very own. But only if she stays this little and adorable and happy forever. No growing up, no loss of cuteness, and no mood changes. Now, where do I get one? (But, seriously, what a fucking cutiepie. Jesus. I think one of my ovaries just twinged. But just a teensy bit.) (ETA: Ovary-twinging cuteness thanks to Feministing, where I initially saw this.)
Well, one of my images was perfect, and I only had to do a little bit of work in Photoshop. The second image….well, I’m still working on it, and I am indeed sick of Photoshop. Also, I put the photo emulsion on the screen – I think I fucked it up. It’s possible that the sensitizer was too old (although it seemed okay), and I the screen got coated a little unevenly. Or maybe it just looks that way because of how it’s drying. At this point, though, there’s not much to do but let it dry and see how it takes the design, I guess. And if worse comes to worse, I’ll just learn how to stencil. But I’d prefer to screenprint.
I’m working on some screenprinting today, and right now I’m working on cleaning up one of my images. I’m sure I’ll be sick to death of Photoshop before today’s over.
I worked on it a little last night, but I also worked on my top-down raglan. I’ve finally gotten to where it meets under the arms, so I could work on the body. And I think I’m going to add some short rows for bust shaping. We’ll see how that goes.
Alright, so now I’m off to work on screenprinting stuff, and watch Muscle Beach Party. I mean, it’s pretty cute, but some of the shit requires a lot of disbelief suspension. Like a three-car caravan weaving all over the road while passengers play guitars that are hooked up to amps, and none of the cars behind the caravan are pissed. Right. Or Dee Dee just finished surfing (albeit on the back of Frankie’s board, boo), and wiped out at the end, and her hair is still dry and not at all mussed. Or Dee Dee putting up with Frankie’s bullshit. I mean, really.
GAGG: 4.15 miles
Okay, so, I tried to dye some of my hair blue, and it didn’t work out so well. Here’s before:
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And here’s after:
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I was going for something a lot less subtle, so, oh well. I know it’s the two layers of black dye, and I’m just going to have to have someone with more experience bleach through that, because I’m not willing to try it myself and fry my hair.
Anyway, here’s episode 11 of Skeeter’s Reality Show: We Have a Second Cat!
Well, I have been crafting – quite a bit, actually. But it’s all for the Lynch swap, and I don’t want to post anything obvious until my partner gets her stuff. But so far I’m well pleased with how it’s all turning out.
I also just sat down and finished editing the vacation pictures, so they’re all up at Flickr now. I’m probably not going to blog the post-wedding stuff, since they’re pretty well documented at Flickr, and I don’t feel like writing it all out twice. So just go here, start with the first picture, and go through them – they’re chronological (except the wedding pic is at the end, and it happened *before* Disneyworld), and all the notes I’ve written are what I would’ve blogged here. So there you go. If you don’t want to go through all the pictures, or have seen most of them already, the last 44 are the ones I added today (including the wedding pic).
So, back to the wedding blogging. I left off in my entry for June 22. I forgot to mention in that entry that after breakfast, while I was getting dressed for the wedding, and Greg, Graedon, and Danny were waiting for me downstairs, we’d forgotten to put the “do not disturb” sign up on the door, so a housekeeper came in. And she was very nice, and didn’t seem to mind that I was putting on makeup and shit. But – she asked me if I was pregnant. And I was actually pretty happy with myself for handling this so well – I just laughed and told her no, I was just fat. And I think she must not have understood me, because then she said, “But you have children, right?” And I smiled and said no. So, I guess it’s kind of crap that someone might assume I must be pregnant or have been pregnant to be the size I am, but it really didn’t bother me, and I didn’t feel at all bad or guilty when I said, “No, just fat.” and I think that’s a good thing. It was the first time I noticed myself kind of automatically being comfortable with my body, if that makes sense. Like, I’m all for body acceptance, and not hating on yourself and being obsessed over your appearance or skinny because that’s what society reinforces – but it can be difficult to feel that in the middle of the real world, especially with other people around, whatever. Like, logically, rationally, this is what I think is right. But sometimes it’s hard to feel that it’s right; sometimes it’s hard to feel that I’m okay as I am, and that I shouldn’t feel uncomfortable or whatever. And that interaction with the housekeeper, after it was over I realized it was the first time I’d involuntarily felt okay about myself, especially in response to such a direct question. I think part of it was also that the housekeeper wasn’t trying to be rude, just curious, and she didn’t react negatively to my not having children but just being fat. Anyway, good on me. I think it’s finally starting to sink in. So all those “fake it til you make it” cognitive behavioralists have a point, and if you make a conscious effort to change what you tell yourself, you *can* change how you think. (Like, I’ve been consciously trying to banish all fat-shaming self-talk, and obviously it’s changed how I feel about myself. Yay!)
Anyway, back to the wedding. It was awesome. I left off at the reception, with the magician, Greg danced with the flower girl, yay. Danny, Job, Brett, and Brian all changed into their swim trunks and jumped in the lake, and ended up hanging out with Kea’s family for a while after everyone else had left. I don’t remember what Graedon did – whether he caught a ride back with us or not. I think he might have. But anyway, Jeff caught a ride back with us to the hotel, and then Greg and I took an excellent nap in our room. (I think Jeff might have taken a nap, too, but he was in the other groomsmens’ room, and I don’t really remember at this point.) I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was until I took that nap – it really hit the spot. Anyway, after our nap, the other groomsmen had returned, and they wanted to get in the hot tub and then get some food. Greg, Jeff, and I were all, “Fuck that, we’re eating *now*.” So we drove down the road to a Chinese buffet, and ate some awesome bad Chinese. (I don’t mean “*bad* bad,” you know – I mean like, not necessarily healthy or really authentic Chinese, but like…the junk food version, maybe? Like, there are times when I want to go to Jade Palace and have really good Chinese, and then there are times – especially when I’m tipsy – when I just want bad Chinese. I shouldn’t even call it “bad” because it’s fucking tasty, but that’s just what I’ve always called it. When I’m drunk, for instance, nine times out of ten I’m like, “Fuck a burrito – Big Grrl needs some bad Chinese.”) Anyway, it was just what I wanted, like manna from heaven, for reals. Then we went back to the hotel, and got in touch with Danny, Graedon, Job, Brett, and Brian, who had finished with the hot tub and had gone out to get food.
This is where I want to take a second and point out how smart Jeff, Greg, and I were to go out for dinner earlier than the other guys did. Because when we went out (8:30ish? 9ish?) plenty of restaurants were still open, and we had a choice. We were also driving, which helped. When the other guys went out, it was like 9:45 or 10:00, and they went on foot. I think they might have already started drinking, like, before they got in the hot tub? That might have been one reason why they went on foot – but also I think they were expecting not to have to walk too far. Anyway, by the time they headed out for dinner, everything was closed or closing. Except for a Chili’s, but half the group vehemently didn’t want to go there. So they ended up walking quite a bit, and going to an ale house. (I want to say it was actually called Orange County Ale House, but I could be wrong.) When we heard from them, they were still at the ale house, so Jeff, Greg, and I decided to drive out and have some drinks with them. When we got there, Brett was already pretty shitfaced, I’m not going to lie. Anyway, we had this awesomely nice waiter, and he told us about how we had just missed getting to see a dude get tasered. When we entered the ale house, we saw a cop car parked right in front, and a lady was sitting on a bench filling out a police report. Turns out, she had been at the bar, and had given the bartender her credit card to pay for her tab. The bartender finishes running her card, and puts it on the counter for her – and some idiot picks it up to steal it BUT THEN HE JUST GOES TO A DIFFERENT PART OF THE ALE HOUSE AND TRIES TO USE IT THERE AS IF IT WERE HIS OWN CARD! Are you kidding me? Fucking fantastic. Anyway, so of course he got busted, of course the cops came, and then apparently he tried to resist arrest or something, and ended up getting tasered, fell on the pavement, and then picked up and popped in the cop car. And our waiter saw it all, and ran in to tell us. Awesome.
Our waiter was also insanely nice, because he managed to put up with Brett, who was insane. He kept snapping his fingers and yelling for the waiter, ordering the guy to refill his drinks – I mean, he was being kind of nice and funny about it, but he was also being kind of loud and bossy. I don’t know if I would’ve been so nice about it if I’d been the waiter, but our waiter (I wish I could remember his name – Brett certainly yelled it often enough I should remember) was the bomb. At one point, Brett grabbed this huge greasy cheeseburger he was eating, took off the top bun, and smeared it all over his own face. I don’t even remember what sparked him to do this – nothing, I think, other than just sheer drunkenness. It was pretty gross, but also pretty funny.
Shit, I think that’s thunder. We had a gnarly storm last night, and might be having a repeat tonight. Which I would love, but I probably ought to shut my computer down. The rest of this post will have to wait.
